Veterans group tops goal for assisting homeless

When San Diego Veterans for Peace embarked on its Compassion Campaign to fund and distribute desperately needed supplies for the homeless, it was almost immediately overwhelmed by the response.

In slightly more than two years, the initial goal set by the 80-member chapter has been met 13 times over.

The group even had to open a new bank account just to handle all the donations — about $40,000 worth to date. By comparison, the organization’s regular bank account has only $1,500 in it, spokesman Gil Field said.

“We’re very surprised and very pleased that we’ve raised $40,000,” Field said. “We have processed and spent far more money than we have ever seen before.”

Volunteers with San Diego Veterans for Peace have been canvassing the city’s streets late at night since December 2010, Field said. As of Friday, the group had given away 1,650 sets of sleeping bags, waterproof sacks and waterproof ponchos, the three items many homeless veterans have said they need most.

Founded in 1985, Veterans for Peace is a national organization based in St. Louis that advocates against war. The San Diego chapter is one of about 140 throughout the country and was founded in 2003, Field said.

The effort to distribute kits to the homeless was launched after some of the organization’s members, who were volunteering in downtown San Diego, discovered that an alarming percentage of the city’s homeless claimed to be veterans.

“It’s something we sort of stumbled across,” Field said. “They needed some of the simple things to make their lives better.”

At first, the group set a goal to raise $3,000 so it could buy and distribute 100 sets of sleeping bags, sacks and ponchos. That objective was reached quickly, Field said.

Each set costs about $33, and the group has no overhead. All expenses, such as postage for thank-you letters, are being shouldered by a donor. Hundreds of individuals have donated, even though there hasn’t been widespread marketing of the campaign.

Once a set is purchased, volunteers will comb the downtown streets at night and discreetly ask homeless people whether they would like one. If so, the set is hand-delivered, Field said. All homeless people — not only veterans — are eligible to receive the sets, he added.

“We find the newly homeless are the ones who need it,” Field said.

Anyone wishing to make a tax-deductible donation can do so online at sdvfp.org or by mailing a check made out to San Diego Veterans for Peace, 12932 Sunderland St., Poway, CA 92064.